This invention relates to the method and apparatus for heating, drying, or fixing images by means of hot air, or radiant energy and more particularly, to a more efficient method and apparatus for accomplishing fixing of toner images.
The method of drying, heating or fixing images by hot air or radiant energy sources is well known. However, since hot air or radiant energy devices require a large size blower or source of radiant energy, they do not represent the preferred devices for fusing toner images.
Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is to provide an improved and more efficient hot air fuser for fixing toner images to copy substrates.
It is a more particular object of this invention to provide an improved fuser utilizing electrostatic discharge for improving the efficiency of heat transfer from an energy source to the toner material forming images on the support material.